List prices for The Lofts At Seven at 277 Golden Gate Avenue have been set with tours of the 88 new rental units in the Tenderloin slated to commence in a couple of weeks.
The 31 studios which start at 275 square feet have been priced from $1,550. The 12 junior one-bedrooms which range from 400 to 510 square feet will start at $1,850. The one-bedrooms lofts which range from 400 to 860 square feet have been priced from $2,100.
∙ Rebroadcasting As “The Lofts At Seven” In The Tenderloin [SocketSite]

Comments from “Plugged-In” Readers

Studios in the Tenderloin starting at $1,550? Two people were shot one block away from this building, just yesterday, and stuff like that happens all the time there. And of course the new grocery stores finally going in on mid market are all upscale and geared towards yuppie gentrifiers rather than the majority of existing low income residents in the area. Not that ridiculous prices are anything new, but I hate this city sometimes.

These will rent out quickly given that the prices are reasonable and its central location albeit in the Tenderloin. As the saying goes, “If you build it, they will come.” I am glad to see that this will improve the Tenderloin (one of the most central yet under-utilized neighborhoods in the city.) Imagine being able to walk to work from here and never have to deal with BART or MUNI again.

This is market rate housing right? The prices seem fair, although possibly high for the neighborhood, which is definitely sketchy to say the least.
It is right around the corner from Hastings, so there might be a decent amount of demand there. I’m glad to see market rate housing in the neighborhood, hopefully it will help to elevate it from the cesspool it is today.

@cbf, “Two people were shot one block away from this building, just yesterday, and stuff like that happens all the time there.” – that hasn’t stopped anyone from living in the Mission, has it? It STILL happens all the time there as well.

We need many more of these projects so we don’t lose all the young people who want to live here.
This is a way better alternative for a single person than living under the tyranny of the master tenant class

“So cbf would rather see the grocery stores targeting the existing TL residents? What would they sell? Malt liquor, crack, bullets and what else?”
Actually, i was thinking of something more like a Safeway.
The tenderloin/mid-market/civic center has long needed a real supermarket instead of the gaggle of liqour stores it does have. Yet nothing happens until the area starts becoming trendy and gentrified, and when then they finally do plan to build some supermarkets…they’re half-assed upscale supermarkets for techies/yuppies. Old story, the same whining about gentrification that plenty of people have done before here and in other cities, I know…but it isn’t any less frustrating.

@cbf: Considering you are in the anti-car transit utopia camp, how can you say there are no “regular” grocery stores nearby when the Market St. Safeway is only 2 subway stops away? And now there’s a Trader Joe’s at Hyde & California so I really don’t see the problem.

There was a safeway at larkin and bush for years
it closed .A super discount grocery opened there you could eat for 10$ a week . it closed.
You should know this @cbf
Safeway can not pay there rent on just you CBF

I think the pricing for the area is ridiculous. It may seem fair to some, but you can live on the other side of Van Ness in a much better neighborhood or in the Mission for a little bit more or get a roommate and live for less. In 5 years, the space will resemble the residential hotels in the Tenderloin. Until the City gets serious about cleaning up the Tenderloin, nothing will change for that neighborhood.

These look gorgeous, and will be great for the area which is seeing an influx of tech workers and people tired of paying $2500 for a studio – such as in the Mission.
Jabba – clearly you haven’t been out in the rental market for a while. Also, have you seen Hayes Valley recently? Or 3rd street in the past 10 years? Both previously blighted areas that are now soaring. Most SF residents now wouldn’t recognize what those areas used to be.
So I say bravo, keep the rental inventory coming for people who make under $100k/year.
I just wonder when touring will start… can’t wait…

I live around here and while it is a homeless dump it is only a matter of time before it changes. The Tenderloin is too central and close to BART for developers to ignore it and with basically every other area of SF becoming gentrified it is just a matter of time before this area does so as well. There also is a ton of good food here already. The City though needs to man up and get rid of these “hotels” and liquor stores just serving the drug and whore trader. It’s a disgrace.

All you sheltered snobs telling people to move elsewhere if they don’t like the price wouldn’t last a week in Detroit or Oakland. You are the softest people on the planet, yet you take the harshest tack. You people are socially retarded and phony.

No comments from a resident of 38 McAllister (Book Concern Building); Equally small apartments, very fine for a single person, or a couple close to one another. And as owners of a unit at 83 McAllister, we welcome all the new development coming to the neighborhood – Trinity Plaza, the backpackers hostel at 7th, the newly renovated Renoir hotel, this new studio building … it is a great locadtion, and we enjoy it immensely … and I forgot to mention the famrer’s markets twice a week in UN Plaza. These units should rent easily, and the price seems high, but all rents are negotiable, and if too high, these rents may come down ..

The City though needs to man up and get rid of these “hotels” and liquor stores just serving the drug and whore trader.
That’ll never happen. Even in the gentrified Mission, there are still many such “hotels” scattered about. Unfortunately, the TL has many more such properties than the Mission ever had. While the TL will continue to improve and gentrify, many of the undesirable aspects of it will likely never go away.
With all that said, it’s one of my favorite neighborhoods for cheap eats. And I hope it continues to stay that way (cheap).

Earlier this week yelp launched new feature that takes their collection of reviews and generates a map from the frequency of certain words used to describe places in that area.
Notice what geographic area gets the most emphasis when you search for the word “sketchy” in San Francisco:http://www.yelp.com/wordmap/sf/sketchy

Stockton Geographer mentioned “the newly renovated Renoir hotel” at 6:38 PM above. Andrew Ross’ column today had a few ‘graphs on that project.
The gist is that the EB-5 program, which the U.S. Immigration program runs and essentially trades green cards for foreign private capital investment, was the catalyst for raising about $40 million to kick start conversion of the 1926 building into a boutique hotel:

EB5 Global [a Portland, OR firm that raised the money for the Renoir project] is one of more than 200 government-approved Immigration Investor Regional Centers that have sprung up nationwide, bringing together U.S. developers seeking capital with overseas investors looking for fruitful projects.

Under the 23-year-old program, designed “to stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment,” foreign investors are required to come up with $1 million — $500,000 for an area with higher than average unemployment — that can be tied to the creation of at least 10 full-time jobs within two years.

In return, the investor qualifies for a green card and visas for his or her immediate family.

He goes on to write that the number of green cards issued under this program increased 1,396% (that’s not a typo, yes a close to fourteen hundred percent increase) between 2005 and the end of the first quarter of 2012.
The vast majority are going to Chinese investors. Perhaps with their money (since we no longer have a real redevelopment agency), a lot of those TL hotels that CW refers to will get cleaned up and converted into places that tourists who want to visit S.F. but don’t have the budget for a Hilton or a Hyatt will want to stay in.

All you sheltered snobs telling people to move elsewhere if they don’t like the price wouldn’t last a week in Detroit or Oakland. You are the softest people on the planet, yet you take the harshest tack. You people are socially retarded and phony.
I guess you’re a tough guy, Roger. Or is that just on the Internet?

“I live around here and while it is a homeless dump it is only a matter of time before it changes. The Tenderloin is too central and close to BART for developers to ignore it and with basically every other area of SF becoming gentrified it is just a matter of time before this area does so as well. ”
I moved here in 1997, and people were saying the exact same thing about the Tenderloin then. its will be gentriefied soon because it is so central.
there has been VERY VERY very little change in the sketchiness in that 16 yr period.

“there has been VERY VERY very little change in the sketchiness in that 16 yr period”
With the number of SRO units in the Tenderloin coupled with the restrictions on replacing such units, you are going to find it very difficult to gentrify this area.

It won’t be easy to gentrify the TL. These single occupancy hotels are owned by non-profit organizations, whose sole purpose is to serve the low income folks. These non-profits aren’t going away anytime soon as they don’t need to. You can add new buildings around it but the new folks will just have to live with the underprivilegeds for a long time to come.